1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to magnetic memory and particularly to methods of manufacturing magnetic memory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computers conventionally use rotating magnetic media, such as hard disk drives (HDDs), for data storage. Though widely used and commonly accepted, such media suffer from a variety of deficiencies, such as access latency, higher power dissipation, large physical size and inability to withstand any physical shock. Thus, there is a need for a new type of storage device devoid of such drawbacks.
Other dominant storage devices are dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM) which are volatile and very costly but have fast random read/write access time. Solid state storage, such as solid-state-nonvolatile-memory (SSNVM) devices having memory structures made of NOR/NAND-based Flash memory, providing fast access time, increased input/output (IOP) speed, decreased power dissipation and physical size and increased reliability but at a higher cost which tends to be generally multiple times higher than hard disk drives (HDDs).
Although NAND-based flash memory is more costly than HDD's, it has replaced magnetic hard drives in many applications such as digital cameras, MP3-players, cell phones, and hand held multimedia devices due, at least in part, to its characteristic of being able to retain data even when power is disconnected. However, as memory dimension requirements are dictating decreased sizes, scalability is becoming an issue because the designs of NAND-based Flash memory and DRAM memory are becoming difficult to scale with smaller dimensions. For example, NAND-based flash memory has issues related to capacitive coupling, few electrons/bit, poor error-rate performance and reduced reliability due to decreased read-write endurance. Read-write endurance refers to the number of reading, writing and erase cycles before the memory starts to degrade in performance due primarily to the high voltages required in the program, erase cycles.
It is believed that NAND flash, especially multi-bit designs thereof, would be extremely difficult to scale below 45 nanometers. Likewise, DRAM has issues related to scaling of the trench capacitors leading to very complex designs which are becoming increasingly difficult to manufacture, leading to higher cost.
Currently, applications commonly employ combinations of EEPROM/NOR, NAND, HDD, and DRAM as a part of the memory in a system design. Design of different memory technology in a product adds to design complexity, time to market and increased costs. For example, in hand-held multi-media applications incorporating various memory technologies, such as NAND Flash, DRAM and EEPROM/NOR flash memory, complexity of design is increased as are manufacturing costs and time to market. Another disadvantage is the increase in size of a device that incorporates all of these types of memories therein.
There has been an extensive effort in development of alternative technologies such as Ovanic RAM (or phase-change memory), Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), Magnetic RAM (MRAM), Nanochip, and others to replace memories used in current designs such as DRAM, SRAM, EEPROM/NOR flash, NAND flash and HDD in one form or another. Although these various memory/storage technologies have created many challenges, there have been advances made in this field in recent years. MRAM seems to lead the way in terms of its progress in the past few years to replace all types of memories in the system as a universal memory solution.
One of the problems with prior art methods of producing MRAM is that prior art methods are very costly. This high cost is driven by the fact that prior art methods have a low memory-element-per-wafer yield, are unreliable, and are not modular.
In MRAM production, as with many other type of memory production, there is a fixed cost per-wafer. As a result, the more MRAM memory cells that can be manufactured on a single wafer, the lower the cost per memory cell. Prior art methods have an undesirably low memory-element-per-wafer yield making each memory cell correspondingly more costly.
A further problem with prior art methods is that the methods of production are unreliable. Unreliable methods lead to the frequent fabrication of non-functioning memory cells. Each non-functioning unit increases the per-unit cost of the remaining, functioning units.
Also, the non-modular nature of prior art methods exacerbates the cost and reliability problems. The nature of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) production, used in many types of RAM production, generally precludes the use of many materials present in MRAM production inside CMOS facilities. Thus, with prior art methods, a facility must be wholly converted to MRAM production further increasing the costs. Additionally, contamination results from an MRAM and CMOS combined processes.
These problems reduce MRAM's competitive edge relative to DRAM, SRAM, EEPROM/NOR flash, NAND flash, and HDD storage solutions.
Thus, the need arises for a method of manufacturing a low cost (high volume), high-yield, high-reliability magnetic memory.